Seven-Membered Ring Nucleoside Analogues: Stereoselective Synthesis and Studies on Their Conformational Properties

Abstract

The synthesis of a novel series of seven-membered ring nucleoside analogues as candidates for biological screening and gene silencing applications is described. The key step in the synthetic approach is a stereoselective synthesis of an epoxide that is used as a common synthetic intermediate to prepare functionalized oxepane nucleoside derivatives. The conformational landscape and preferred ring-puckering of selected oxepane nucleosides was also studied by NMR, X-ray crystallography, and quantum mechanical calculations.